NEGOTIATING the steep stairs in the shop he runs on a splendid 19th century terrace in Edinburgh’s Old Town, Andrew McRae delights in highlighting the singularity of a stock selection that ranges from vintage style wall clocks to wooden propellers.

The Museum Context shop is based in a store that for 130 years was home to the Cresser family’s brush selling business. Having prospered quietly for three years, it has attracted global attention in recent months after starting to stock Harry Potter licenced products. These include stuffed Hedwig owls at £49 and a quidditch broomstick, which sells for £350.

Mr Macrae became interested in the possibility of selling such goods after seeing hordes of “Potter pilgrims” pass by the shop. It lies on a cobbled street that is reckoned to have provided JK Rowling with inspiration for the Diagon Alley haunt of wizards that features in her books.

There was luck involved in the move as well as strategic thinking.

“The Potter products have been a natural evolution and it’s been customer led due to our observation … and the other reason is quite frankly one of our suppliers obtained a licence to sell the product and we thought this looks interesting, we could mix this into our collection and see how this performs.”

Mr McRae was delighted to have been given another opportunity to pursue the passion for curating collections of goods that he believes have character, which has been a constant in ten years in retail.

“One of the things that we’ve been thrilled about is I did a bit of research and discovered that there’s a company called Lochaven through in Ayrshire who make the officially licenced 100 per cent Scottish lambswool, 100 per cent made in Scotland house scarves. You’ve got Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw … This company export them all over the world yet there was no natural place for them to be sold (in store) in Scotland. That’s probably one of our best selling items”

Since opening his first store in the affluent Morningside area of Edinburgh in 2007, Mr McRae has followed a singular path in a retailing market that has been turned on its head.

While many stores have fallen by the wayside amid the increasing popularity of internet shopping, he has prospered with a focus on bricks and mortar retailing.

The faith in the conventional approach makes perfect sense coming from a man who trained as an architect while working in John Lewis’s Edinburgh department store to help fund his studies.

Mr McRae talks with obvious reverence about the historic buildings he worked on, such as the Signet Library on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, and the standards of customer service offered by John Lewis. He recalls the employee-owned business did not advertise when he worked for it.

The time at John Lewis left Mr McRae with an abiding desire to have his own shop and provided an introduction to a young management trainee called Alice who became his wife and business partner.

“We thought we can have a go at this. As a manager within a large company you have all the stress and anxiety of having your own business with zero benefits in terms of freedom and flexibility.”

The inspiration for the first shop, Context Interiors, came from the conviction that the couple’s eclectic interests made them well qualified to offer something a bit special.

“We clearly did as much research as we could but it was a gut instinct that there was a market that wasn’t being catered to that we wanted to try and tap into,” recalls Mr McRae.

“That was about coming back to observations, my architectural background, in that a lot of us live in period properties, or we live in modern properties but we might like things that are well made or more traditional, classic in design. I’m a huge fan of contemporary products, art, design and what have you but the market there always felt to me to be very well catered at every price point … but I felt there were very few places you could go where you might see something a bit more classic, a bit more focused on the materiality shall we say.”

Mr McRae has enjoyed collaborating with artists such as Iain McIntosh, who has illustrated books by Alexander McCall Smith. “Something that crosses into my retail business is my passion for not only history and heritage but also for working with artists, designers and illustrators, people who have these fabulous talents and I feel I can help cross over and bring them to the public in a different realm, so creating bespoke product lines which can have wide appeal, both to locals and to visitors.”

Mr McIntosh has designed exclusive products such as a “You’ll have had your trams” tea towel for the Context business.

The last ten years have not been plain sailing and there have been times Fife-born Mr McRae wondered if he should have stayed in architecture. He only stopped working in the profession after the business had been running for four years.

“We managed to launch just in time for the credit crunch, which led on to the recession, the double dip depression.”

Tough times required the firm to be adaptable in the UK and prompted it to make a bold move into the Hong Kong market, which has paid off handsomely.

“In the last six years we have opened and operated from 10 different sites, in Hong Kong. We went out there when the UK market was appalling … What we were seeing was a fight for survival and it was suggested to me that we should look at the market there, quite by chance, and I did and the response was so strong.”

With his 40th birthday approaching Mr McRae seems very happy with his lot. While the outlook for the economy is uncertain he believes the prospects for Context are good and is preparing to open a third outlet in Edinburgh and mulling plans for further expansion.